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Leveling
The Hunter class is one of the most popular classes in the game as both a player's primary character (or "main") and an alternate character (or "alt") for a player whose primary character is a different class. Part of the reason for this is that hunters are extremely easy to level, both as a solo player and playing in groups. Hunters are considered a class that is "easy to level, but difficult to master". As a pure-DPS class (a class lacking talents or abilities that could be useful for other roles such as tanking or healing effectively), Hunters have three talent specializations that are all viable for dealing damage. Hunters are a physical damage class (the type of damage they deal is primarily physical in nature, as opposed to spell damage) and provide the only physical ranged damage in the game. While Hunters do possess a few melee abilities, the vast majority of their skills are based on ranged combat which means that in order to see the best performance as a Hunter, you should always remain in ranged combat whenever possible. Race Selection When rolling a Hunter, you have several race choices available to you for both Horde and Alliance. You can make your race selection based purely on aesthetics, or you can factor in racial attributes in order to get the best performance out of your character. In addition to these base stats, there are a few racial abilities you may also want to take into consideration. *'Dwarves' have a racial ability called Gun Specialization which increases chance to critically hit with guns by 1%. *'Draenei' have a racial ability called Heroic Presence which increases chance to hit (for both player and their party) by 1%. *'Orcs' have a racial ability called Command which increases pet damage by 5%. *'Trolls' have a racial ability called Bow Specialization which increases chance to critically hit with bows by 1%. Hunter Class Quests Hunters begin life in Azeroth without that which makes them so unique: their pets. At level 10, players become eligible to begin a short chain of quests which will teach them how to obtain and care for their pets. Taming the Beast Where this quest line begins for you will depend on what race and faction you've chosen, but the overall theme remains the same. You are instructed to go out and tame three specific types of beasts and bring them to your quest-giver to prove your proficiency at handling the beasts of the wild. Once you have proven your worth, you are then taught how to tame whatever pet you like which you can then keep. Dwarves *The Hunter's Path begins the quest line, instructing you to visit Grif Wildheart *Grif gives you Taming the Beast (1), instructing you to tame and return with a Large Crag Boar *Next, Grif gives you Taming the Beast (2), instructing you to tame and return with a Snow Leopard *Grif then gives you Taming the Beast (3), instructing you to tame and return with an Ice Claw Bear *Finally, Grif gives you Training the Beast, instructing you to visit Belia Thundergranite for your rewards: Training Lesson, Feed Pet and Revive Pet Night Elves *The Hunter's Path begins the quest line, instructing you to visit Dazalar *Dazalar gives you Taming the Beast (1), instructing you to tame and return with a Webwood Lurker *Next, Dazalar gives you Taming the Beast (2), instructing you to tame and return with a Nightsaber Stalker *Dazalar then gives you Taming the Beast (3), instructing you to tame and return with a Strigid Screecher *Finally, Dazalar gives you Training the Beast, instructing you to visit Jocaste for your rewards: Training Lesson, Feed Pet and Revive Pet Draenei *Seek Huntress Kella Nightbow begins the quest line, instructing you to (predictably) visit Huntress Kella Nightbow *Kella gives you Taming the Beast (1), instructing you to tame and return with a Barbed Crawler *Next, Kella gives you Taming the Beast (2), instructing you to tame and return with a Greater Timberstrider *Kella then gives you Taming the Beast (3), instructing you to tame and return with a Nightstalker *Finally, Kella gives you Beast Training, instructing you to visit Ganaar for your rewards: Training Lesson, Feed Pet and Revive Pet Orcs and Trolls *The Hunter's Path begins the quest line, instructing you to visit Thotar *Thotar gives you Taming the Beast (1), instructing you to tame and return with a Dire Mottled Boar *Next, Thotar gives you Taming the Beast (2), instructing you to tame and return with a Surf Crawler *Thotar then gives you Taming the Beast (3), instructing you to tame and return with an Armored Scorpid *Finally, Thotar gives you Training the Beast, instructing you to visit Ormak Grimshot for your rewards: Training Lesson, Feed Pet and Revive Pet Tauren *The Hunter's Path begins the quest line, instructing you to visit Thotar *From there, you follow the same quest line as Orcs and Trolls Blood Elves *Seek the Farstriders begins the quest line, instructing you to visit Farstrider Retreat in the Eversong Woods *Lieutenant Dawnrunner gives you Taming the Beast (1), instructing you to tame and return with a Crazed Dragonhawk *Next, Dawnrunner gives you Taming the Beast (2), instructing you to tame and return with an Elder Springpaw *Dawnrunner then gives you Taming the Beast (3), instructing you to tame and return with a Mistbat *Finally, Dawnrunner gives you Beast Training, instructing you to visit Halthenis for your rewards: Training Lesson, Feed Pet and Revive Pet Talent Selection Because Hunters are a pure-DPS class, any of the three talent trees are considered viable, though not necessarily optimal, for leveling. Simply put, that means you can choose to specialize in any of the three trees and still be successful. However, many find that certain talent builds and character configurations are more efficient during the leveling process than others. Beast Mastery Many players have found that using a Beast Mastery build that focuses on pet survivability in conjunction with a Tenacity pet provides an extremely efficient leveling experience. The premise behind this technique is AoE grinding similar in nature to methods used by Paladins and Mages while leveling. A Tenacity pet is used for this method because other types of pets lack multi-target taunt capabilities, which is a key factor in the success of this technique. This technique can be applied to grinding or questing, or a combination of the two, and be effective. To adopt this technique, the player would send their pet in to collect a group of multiple mobs with the pet's taunt ability active. Give the pet time to establish threat on the group of mobs, and then attack with multi-target abilities of their own (such as Volley or Explosive Trap). Example Builds *Hunter: 57/14/0 *Pet: Bear Marksmanship While AoE leveling with a Beast Mastery build is arguably more efficient, some players prefer a more "glass cannon" approach that will give them optimum damage output that can be equally effective for both solo and group play. Sporting a Marksmanship build and favoring a Ferocity pet will give you the highest possible damage output against single targets while leveling; however, it's worth noting that this method provides significantly less survivability and adaptability than a Beast Mastery build, particularly when multiple targets are involved. Example Builds *Hunter: 15/51/5 *Pet: Cat Survival If you're looking for some middle ground between the high damage output of a Marksmanship build and the survivability of a Beast Mastery build, you may favor a Survival build instead. The Survival tree provides increased utility and survivability while still maintaining respectable damage output. Coupled with either a Ferocity or Cunning pet, a Survival build can offer substantial gains to either play style. Example Builds *Hunter: 0/16/55 *Pet: Spider Category:Leveling